There are many similarities between “Legend of The Sugar Girl” by Joseph Boyden and an excerpt from “The Education of Augie Merasty” edited and formalized by David Carpenter. They both talk about the many hardships that the students of residential have gone through. “Legend of The Sugar Girl” talks about addiction and the effects that the residential school put on the children after they graduated from the schools, while the excerpt talks about what has happened in the school and the way the nuns and teachers treated the kids. Both do have some similarities in what they try to convey. They both talk about the sexual abuse that went on in the school, how even though it was bad there was still things to look forward to like treats, and the punishments
…show more content…
Even with the sweets being handed out the children's everyday food consisted of “a bowl of grey mush” (Boyden 186), and “rotten fish or other distasteful crap” (Merasty n.p.). That in itself is a form of punishment simply because they were born a different race. They got punishments from the smallest things like speaking their language: “Always, when they were caught they had their mouths washed out with soap and were given a switching on the bare skin of their behinds” (Boyden 186). The church found many ways to punish the natives and the natives were very damaged from it; however, today they are fighting to recover from what the residential schools have done and are trying to make the communities stronger with each passing day. There are many similarities between the books, and both have a great message to tell. The stories come together in explaining the importance on what has happened in the residential schools and how they effected the children. They range from the abuse that has happened during the time to the after effect of the children graduating. With the sexual abuse that has happened and the punishments that have been handed out, there are times when rewards are presented even if it less frequent then the cruelty of what has
Even with the sweets being handed out the children's everyday food consisted of “a bowl of grey mush” (Boyden 186), and “rotten fish or other distasteful crap” (Merasty n.p.). That in itself is a form of punishment simply because they were born a different race. They got punishments from the smallest things like speaking their language: “Always, when they were caught they had their mouths washed out with soap and were given a switching on the bare skin of their behinds” (Boyden 186). The church found many ways to punish the natives and the natives were very damaged from it; however, today they are fighting to recover from what the residential schools have done and are trying to make the communities stronger with each passing day. There are many similarities between the books, and both have a great message to tell. The stories come together in explaining the importance on what has happened in the residential schools and how they effected the children. They range from the abuse that has happened during the time to the after effect of the children graduating. With the sexual abuse that has happened and the punishments that have been handed out, there are times when rewards are presented even if it less frequent then the cruelty of what has